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Friday, 19 December 2014

Perhaps this offers hope for the South Kilbuurn Estate that is being subjected to social cleansing as land is sold off and secure tenants sold out, while Brent Council's bad advice can be seen as amounting to entrapment, comments Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

By Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

A BBC Newsnight report by
Michael Crick in 2002 reveals that the CV of Iain Duncan Smith — the then Tory
Party leader and now Work & Pensions Secretary — as published on the Conservative Party website contained a number
of inaccuracies.

While the
relevant link no longer serves its purpose in the original context, sadly the BBC does not seem
to scrutinise the utterings of the now Work and Pensions Secretary with
as much rigour as Michael Crick exercised in analysing the now Work
& Pensions Secretary's statements regarding the CVs of the targets of right wing welfare reformers.

“I would never work for this company again, I felt like a slave trapped in a big metal cage.” That's what one former Amazon employee told me about their experience working in one of Amazon's warehouses.

This month Amazon hires thousands of temporary staff at it packing factories to fill millions of orders. But while Amazon rakes in huge sales, the people working hard in the warehouses face low pay and tough conditions. When
I read about the conditions at Amazon factories last year I wanted to
take action, so along with a few friends, we started a petition calling on Amazon to pay its workers a living wage.

Despite
billions in sales and expensive promotion campaigns such as sponsoring
Downton Abbey, Amazon still have the majority of their staff on insecure
contracts, paying a wage that doesn't meet the cost of living. I've
spoken in confidence to some of the people working in Amazon's UK
warehouses, and published their stories anonymously so the company's
abuses can become more widely known. [1]

As customers, or potential customers, we have huge power to let Amazon know what we expect of them as a responsible company -
but only if enough of us come together. They claim to be "Earth's most
customer-centric company", so let's put that to the test. Already 65,000
people have signed our petition and thousands have signed up to avoid
shopping at Amazon this Christmas. [2]

And
I note that the problem of no reasonable adjustments for disabled
people at jobcentres indicated in Kate's blog piece is made more
persistent by the regime of daily signing on at jobcentres that is
becoming far more prevalent. That increased prevalence is according to
the findings of KUWG members leafleting and talking to jobcentre
'customers' exiting jobcentres after their poverty parole sessions, as
sampled at various jobcentres near Kilburn.

I
am also aware from previous First Aid training I received in 2005/2006
as a care worker, that hypoglycaemia can lead to behavioural problems.
Thus aside from likely 'knee jerk reaction' by jobcentre 'customers' to the impact of the general vindictiveness inflicted upon them under 'welfare reform' measures, G4S' institutional ignorance
of diabetic access requirements makes 'powder keg' situations far more
likely.

And of the hundreds of Londoners put on JSA sanctions each day,
perhaps at least a few are sanctioned on account of behaviour resulting
at least partially from hypoglycaemia — if indeed those who give the
sanctions need any justifiable reason to inflict a sanction. (Most JSA
sanctions are overturned.)

Further still, when people are sanctioned out of food money for weeks upon weeks — whether they have diabetes or not — their blood sugar is likely to run low, limiting their available blood sugar and thus producing irritability. Thus sanctions and low blood sugar are likely to have an impact upon whether a person is inclined to do damage to jobcentre property and thus be banned from attending the jobcentre and being further compromised regarding accessing 'the help [they] need, when [they] need it', wouldn't you say?

Sunday, 7 December 2014

By Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

Brent's 'savings' slaughter services

Brent Council's 'savings' slaughter services is the clear message that can be gleaneed from Martin Francis' initial scrutiny of draft proposals for cuts in services that will be considered by the Cabinet on Monday December 15th.

From Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike

G4S Guards on Trial

for the death of Jimmy
Mubenga

10am,Court 16

Central Crown Court (Old Bailey) London EC4M 7EH

Nr. St Paul’s tube

The trial of the three guards who restrained Mr Mubenga on
board a British Airways flight is likely to finish next week. Closing
arguments are expected to start Monday. The jury is likely to go out
Wednesday and we urge all who can to come and bear witness in the final days
of the trial.

A member of the All African Women’s Group (a
self-help group of asylum seekers) from the Congo who has attended regularly
said: “Witnesses describe Jimmy calling
out “I can’t breathe”, and asking for help but he didn’t get it.What happened to Jimmy can
happen to any of us anywhere, unless justice is done.”

Women of Colour
Global Women’s Strike, which has helped co-ordinate a rota of people to
go to the trial, says:

"We are attending the trial to
support Mr Mubenga’s family and to demonstrate to
all that Jimmy’s life mattered. 827 people have died
in police custody since 2004 many of them people of colour. It is women –
mothers, sisters, daughters, wives – who are left to
pick up the pieces, defend our loved ones and are at the forefront of
campaigns for justice.From London to Ferguson, New York to Gaza, as long as money
is poured into privatised/militarised police forces, prioritising profit over
life, all our lives are on the line."

Saturday, 6 December 2014

By Dude Swheatie

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group Honorary Member Kate Belgrave and witnesses report on how the drive to get throughput in and out of Kilburn Jobcentre in a form of ritual humiliation amounts to number-crushing.

Under such circumstances, the treatment given to jobseekers regarded as 'overstayers' — a phrase I heard applied to myself after a time on Labour's 'New Deal' expired in 2003 — it is obviously the person denied 'the help they need, when they need it', is treated as abuser of the system rather than the person abused.

And under such circumstances, I'm really glad that I accepted the fact that for me to carry on as a disabled jobseeker till retirement would make myself vulnerable with not worth the pain of that gamble. From November 1977 till I claimed Employment & Support Allowance in early 2009, alongside inadequately supported stretches of government funded training and 3 years as a full-time undergraduate, my sum-total of waged employment had amounted to a grand total of 19 months.

Of that 19 months, 11 months — May 2005 till April 2006 — were so part-time that I was submitting part-time earnings forms at the jobcentre on my fortnightly signing on dates. And against that backdrop I was also experiencing the frustration of not having my JSA top-up entitlement recognised even while the few hours I did as a £7.81 per hour careworker to adults with learning difficulties was below a single 24+ year old's JSA levels. Forget the idea that that income would allow me to travel by tube to shifts with my service users; I gave up that work when the stress of not getting the JSA top up I required earned me cellulitis in my legs as I walked about 3 or 4 miles to a shift and the same back for one of those shifts.

But I was not the only one let down by the system in those days of the 'noughties, as a Community Care magazine report suggested. The report by welfare rights specialist Neil Bateman sadly lacked anything like the coverage given to portrayals of benefit claimants as 'shirkers' has had. So, yes the current Government has made life much worse for benefit claimants, but the anthem with which the Blair Government was elected — 'Things Can Onlyu Get Better' — did not really apply to people let down by jobcentres even then. Neil Bateman's report is well worth reading for the picture of a system in meltdown — Jobcentre Plus: Poor service continues.

From Carer Watch's blog

URGENT ACTION: #SaveILF judgement due Monday

As the future of disabled people’s right to independent living hangs in the balance, disabled people will not be beaten.

Join
us to get the message out loud and clear: whatever the legal ruling, we
will not be pushed back into the margins of society, we will not go
back into the institutions, our place is in the community alongside our
family and friends and neighbours and we are fighting to stay.

On
10am Monday 8th December the judgment in the most recent legal
challenge against the closure of the Independent Living Fund will be
passed down.

In
November last year the Court of Appeal quashed the government’s
decision to close the ILF with the Court of Appeal judges unanimous in
their view that the closure of the fund would have an ‘inevitable and
considerable adverse effect which the closure of the fund will have,
particularly on those who will as a consequence lose the ability to live
independently.”

In
March this year the then Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning
retook the decision and announced a new date of June 2015 for permanent
closure of the Fund that provides essential support enabling disabled
people with the highest support needs to live in the community when the
alternative would be residential care.

In
October a second legal challenge was heard in the high court brought by
disabled claimants claiming that the Minister had not considered any
new information to properly assess the practical effect of closure on
the particular needs of ILF users. The Department for Work and Pensions
mounted a defence based on their assertion that the Minister had
adequate information to realise that the independent living of the
majority of ILF users will be significantly impacted by the closure of
the fund.

The
closure of the ILF effectively signals the end of the right to
independent living for disabled people in the UK. Whilst never perfect
the ILF represents a model of support that has enabled thousands of
disabled people to enjoy meaningfully lives and to contribute to society
as equal citizens. The closure of the Fund to new applicants in
December 2010 has resulted in disabled people trapped indoors without
their basic needs being met, treated worse that animals and if they
complain to their local authorities about needing more support,
threatened with residential care.

The fight to #SaveILF is part of a much wider fight for social justice for all disabled people....

Thursday, 4 December 2014

To the tune of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' - original version can be heard here:

Universal Credit's hit town

to the tune of Santa Claus is coming to Town

You better watch outYou better not cryYou better not poutI'm telling you whyUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townThey're making a list,Checking it twice;Gonna find out who's naughty or nice.Universal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townThey see you when you're sleepingThey know when you're awakeThey're waiting with their sanctionsSo be good for goodness sakeIf you are alone, and not on the sick,Not doing a course? Then they're making it stick.Universal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townThey see you when you're sleepingThey know when you're awakeThey're waiting with their sanctions,So be good for goodness sake
You better watch outYou better not cryYou better not poutI'm telling you whyUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit townUniversal Credit's hit town

By Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

Alongside the news announcements of the Chancellor's Autumn Budget Statement, the photos of George Osborne seem to have been 'airbrushed' or 'PhotoShopped' to give the appearance of a lean man leading an austere life.

With all the 'planned' cuts in welfare spending, I am reminded of starvation diets. An historical figure who really did go in for an austerity diet was Yorkshireman Lumley Kettlewell. He was reportedly gentle — quite unlike a Con-Dem Cabinet member. Hear what happened to him in the Nick Dow song The Ballad of Lumley Kettlewell.

Gets his food from from a food bank,He's hungry and he's freezing..”“Scrounger, scrounger”, Cam'ron says. “He has walked a mile here.Reassess his sickness claim, Take away his day care.Charge him for his council tax, tax his extra bedroom, Benefits are far too lax,send him to the courtroom”

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

It really is the Government and its minions at jobcentres that are 'faking it'. In a world where daily signings on and intimidation regarding enforced conscription to 'Universal Jobmatch' are taking the place of real job creation and opportunities, benefits sanctions are applied unfairly and — when challenged — are overturned.

So reclaim what is rightfully yours, above all, that includes your dignity in the face of tyranny.

With a General Election 2015 looming, your MP can be more sympathetic and empowering than usual!

The Department for Work & Pensions' ploy of bringing in 'reconsideration' and 'mandatory reconsideration' measures before a claimant can appeal against a sanction or having their Employment & Support Allowance claim rubbished by the medically negligent is just to wear claimants down. Knowing that can do wonders for your resolve against those fakers. Writing your MP about such mistreatment that you have experienced can boost your claim to social justice, especially with a General Election 2014 looming.

Osborne's 'austerity' is not working but slavery

The 'austerity' measures of this Government operate to excuse a fire sale of public assets to the global wealthy, against the backdrop of public service cuts. It means what amounts to various forms of slavery for the rest of us. Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism can be very instructive regarding what is really going on.

Daily signing on is right wing government's substitute for real support for the unwaged and demeaning

Benefits that have never kept pace with inflation are being taken away from us

Derail the 'slash and burn' of 'austerity'

Smear stories sneak in unjust laws

Successive UK governments have followed right wing agendas and the dictates of lobbyists from global corporations. Taxpayers' money has been used to turn public opinion against the vulnerable, and now there is the Gagging Law to reduce a counterbalance of truth promotion.

Yet against that backdrop, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group operates with its regular leafleting of jobcentres showing the unwaged that there is hope and good reason to attend our weekly meetings. This boosts the diversity of our meeting attendances, and our casework taken at and beyond weekly meetings is direct action against injustice. That direct action has helped many people get the benefits that even existing laws allow people.

In all this, we are funded through donations and are not statutory funds. If you are able to assist us in all this financially,

All cheques and donations to KUWG should be made out to 'KUWG' and sent to:
Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group
C/o 85 Webheath, Netherwood Street, London NW6 2JS.

Commenting on Blog Contents

Comments are approved unless abusive, obscene, completely off the subject, disguised advertising or libellous. Publication of a comment does not imply that the blog administrator or KUWG agree with it.

Please note if I respond to comments it is in my Google log in — never 'Anonymous'

Commenters cause less confusion when they use their own names or pen names. A host of 'Anons' can give very mixed messages. Even if you use the technically easier 'Anonymous' button to make a comment you can still put your name at the end.

Benefits sanctioned? Take mass action!

An average of 1700 benefit clamants are sanctioned per year in each London parliamentary constituency. One of them might be writing parliamentary candidates in your polling constituency right now. How about more people who are sanctioned writing candidates in your parliamentary constituency and asking relevant questions at 'hustings' debates in your area?

Meeting structure

Helping you feel at home: We meet weekly in the Small Hall at KingsgateCC and start gathering from 3pm, attempting to start the meetings at about 3:15pm and definitely before 3:30pm.

Bring and share refreshments are included. We are not like the 'No eating or drinking on the premises' jobcentre.

The formal meetings start with firstname and what benefit we are on or a one-liner about what brings us to KUWG. (Pensioners and other allies welcome.)

We then ask for casework from those present, arrange who will help with what case, and go onto discussing campaigning leafleting and such outreach activities. We also arrange who will do the chairing or facilitating and note-taking for the following week. Rotating these roles helps minimise the risk of being dominated by one person and helps us build our skills as we share the workload.

Meetings actually finish at about 5:20pm to allow for putting tables and chairs back and leaving the kitchen facilities ready for the next group.